Viewing Melville Davisson Post: "The Land Pirate." (1912).Melville Davisson Post: "The Land Pirate." (1912).To his eternal regret, Captain Roger Shelton, a "financial buccaneer," consulted Randolph Mason for confidential business advice on how to close a real estate transaction without exposing his own duplicity. It did not take Mason long to understand that Shelton aimed to buy parcels of land lying above a rich oil deposit, which the owners were unaware of. Those owners held the land for the benefit of many small investors in a complex banking scheme designed by Shelton to raise money to locate this "el dorado." Mason, claiming he had a plan that fit Shelton's business methods, agreed to pose as a representative of stockholders of a shell corporation Shelton had formed at the closing conference where the deeds to the valuable tracts were to be signed. At the closing, Mason shocked and thwarted Shelton and his lawyer by finding refuge in the Statute of Frauds for the naive land owners and innocent investors.
|